Why
your hair
feels trashed and brittle
after using synthetic dyesFia's tech on synthetic
dye and Hairposted by Fia April 20, 2004

Synthetic hair
dye penetrates into the cortex of the
hair, binding to (or altering) your natural pigment. In order to
penetrate into the cortex the
cuticle of the hair needs to be lifted - that's why ammonia and
hydrogen peroxide are used in synthetic hair dye.

The repeated lifting of the cuticle causes weathering of the hair -
some
cuticles are destroyed and some will not close properly after repeated
colorings. That's why
colored hair will loose lustre and shine over time. A closed cuticle
lying flat along
the strand's surface equals shiny hair that also won't suffer from much
tangling (there is
nothing to catch against other strands). The more weathered the
cuticle, the rougher the
hair will feel and the more it will look like the proverbial "rat's
nest" you see on
some people with long hair that has colored it repeatedly over time.

The ammonia/perioxide combination actually breaks down part of the
keratin/protein in the hair each time you color your hair. With
repeated colorings you actually
can remove enough of the protein to weaken your hair to the point where
it breaks off
(i.e. disintegrates because there is no structure left to keep it
together). That's
why protein treatments/masks are so popular with people who color
regularly. They're used
to replace some of the protein lost to regular colorings - they work to
some extent, but
not nearly as well as keeping the protein it where it should be - i.e.
in the strands - in
the first place.

I'm sure you have the commercials in the US as well where the large
cosmetics
companies try to convince you that the hair color is "moisturizing" and
contains "special care ingredients" to "leave your hair completely
natural and
undamaged". A bunch of bull****, by their very nature they _will_ cause
structural damage to your hair - they
wouldn't work otherwise. With that not said that hair colored with
regular hair color can't
look good - it can and often does - but requires some special care and
pampering to conceal
and to some extent rectify the damage done by the chemicals used.

Henna on the other hand will not lift the cuticle the way regular hair
color
does, nor will it break down the protein structure of your own hair. It
will in fact strengthen
it as it combines with your own keratin to
make it stronger - think of it as a natural protein treatment.